I Bought the Villains With Money - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 39.
It was a process that could never be called easy.
The Black Market Organization was far more tightly woven than I’d anticipated, and their ability to cover tracks was masterful.
But I had Rumdracks and Cho on my side.
“Can I run a con?”
Days earlier, when Rumdracks expressed his desire to pull a con, I’d readily given him permission to do so.
And I asked him to go ahead with whatever he wanted, but also to shake down a target of my choosing.
That target was the Black Market Organization.
Armed with Cho’s intelligence on the Black Market Organization, Rumdracks posed as a major foreign smuggler and made contact with the Black Market Organization that Robert belonged to.
And with my money, he bought their merchandise with tremendous enthusiasm.
Word reached the head of the Black Market Organization in no time, and Cho’s map of the organization’s structure was completed just as quickly.
Cho became an anonymous public informant and reported them to the Security Force, which, grasping the severity of the situation, moved swiftly and swept through the Black Market Organization from top to bottom.
In the process, the children were also handed over to the Security Force as couriers for the organization, but there was nothing that money couldn’t solve.
Meanwhile, I acquired the Phoenix Bank. I spent a considerable amount of money in the acquisition, but thanks to that, the deposits in the Phoenix Bank were as good as mine.
I used those deposits first to extract the children.
‘It’s all become my debt.’
I saw no need to pressure Robert with lengthy explanations, so I skipped the details.
“You don’t need to know the details.”
“How can I ever repay this debt? Thank you, truly thank you.”
Robert’s face was streaked with tears.
He looked ready to kneel before me. I’d known he’d be grateful, but I hadn’t expected tears from a full-grown man, so I was quite taken aback.
And it wasn’t something worthy of thanks. I’d simply corrected what was wrong.
Using small children in black market dealings—as an adult, how could I ignore such a thing and move on?
Of course, since I’m still just a child myself, it’s awkward to say such things.
“Don’t thank me. Think of it as payment for the medicine.”
“You are an angel. Truly, you are my greatest benefactor in life…….”
My face burned. I wasn’t used to such direct praise and the awe in his eyes.
And I felt sorry that the one thing Robert truly wanted and needed had to be postponed.
Establishing the association proved more difficult than expected.
I’d thought to put Rumdracks forward, but he said he had no taste for cons in the art world.
Ever since he conned King Joseph, he said he’d been cursed in that particular line of work.
Since he insisted the fraud would be exposed, I couldn’t push Rumdracks further, so I had to defer the arrangement for a legitimate dissection session.
But I still had a gift to give.
“Robert, the Painters Association is going to hold a dissection session in a month. Want to go?”
Robert vanished from my sight. With a soft thump.
“Robert!”
“I—I, what did I just hear?”
Robert, his legs giving way beneath him, struck the pose of a tragic heroine as he barely managed to lift his head.
“I asked if you wanted to go watch a dissection.”
Robert raised both hands. Then he moved them about as though examining something before his eyes. His gaze had grown strangely distant.
What on earth is he doing?
The longer I watched, the deeper my frown became. It certainly looked like he was practicing dissection.
He’d retreated entirely into his own world. The vacant eyes, the unfocused pupils, his slightly parted mouth twitching—anyone seeing him would think he was mad.
‘The genius doctor,’ I thought.
“Robert, Robert.”
I called his name several times, but he’d already left the building of his mind and couldn’t hear me.
‘There’s no stopping him, is there.’
I clicked my tongue and sat down at my desk.
***
“What in the world is going on!”
Julia hurled the report she’d been reading across the room.
Treasury Minister Neruda stared blankly at the papers scattered across the floor.
A tense, murderous atmosphere hung thick in Julia’s office. Neruda had to come up with a plausible explanation for the woefully inadequate accounting records.
“Cassion’s budget is completely gone?”
“It’s not that it’s gone, but…… we put it in the Phoenix Bank…….”
As Neruda stammered, Julia’s voice grew sharper still.
“Then you need to get it back immediately! What are you dragging your feet for?”
“The Phoenix Bank passed into another person’s hands, and we can no longer access it.”
“Are you insane, Minister Neruda? When did rumors of the Phoenix Bank’s instability start circulating? You’re telling me you haven’t recovered the money yet?”
“The Phoenix Bank was shut down so abruptly that…….”
“Are you calling that an excuse right now?”
Julia’s neck flushed crimson. She trembled with barely contained rage, looking as though she might topple backward at any moment. Seeing her on the verge of collapse, Anderson stepped closer and moved to her side.
“Your Majesty, steady yourself. Now is the time to plan for what comes next.”
Anderson was right. Julia ground her teeth and dropped into her chair with a heavy thud.
“Find out who we can borrow money from, Neruda.”
It galled her to have to extend her hand to the nobility merely to fill Cassion’s coffers, but with her funds dried up, she had little choice.
‘The gold mine payment won’t arrive for some time yet.’
Julia had made investments and set aside reserves of her own, but now was not the moment to touch them.
She couldn’t know when or why she might need coin before Dayson claimed the throne.
“I’ll look into it, but……”
Neruda trailed off. Julia’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Why aren’t you giving me a straight answer?”
“There are strange rumors circulating among the nobility.”
For all his trembling, Neruda answered her questions readily enough.
“What sort of rumors?”
“Well… in my view they’re so absurd I told everyone to disregard them.”
“Did I ask for your opinion? I asked what the rumors were.”
The way Neruda danced around the subject told her these were no idle whispers. She had to know regardless.
If the rumors were false—or worse, if they were true but harmful to Dayson and herself—she needed to suppress them before they spread.
“They concern Prince Cassion, Your Majesty. The rumors suggest that you hold His Highness in… unusually high regard.”
“Nonsense.”
Unlike before, her voice was measured. Which made it all the more chilling. The air turned ice-cold.
“Yes, of course it’s nonsense. I understand perfectly.”
Neruda bowed repeatedly, trying to smooth over Julia’s displeasure.
“Now get out. You’ll have to scrape together funds however you can, even if it means liquidating your own assets. And about this matter—”
Julia pointed a finger at Neruda’s mouth. A warning not to speak carelessly. He pressed his lips shut and nodded.
Neruda scurried from the room like a rooster with its tail on fire.
“Anderson, what’s the status on the people I placed around Irenber?”
“No suspicious activity detected.”
“And the man who bought the Phoenix Bank—have you looked into him?”
“A wealthy foreigner, they say.”
“Arrange a meeting with him. Immediately.”
It was a pity the Phoenix Bank had changed hands, though the money itself wasn’t gone—merely the ownership. That was manageable.
She simply needed to bring the new owner over to her side. If she could secure the bank director’s allegiance, this whole matter would resolve easily.
For Julia, cultivating a single bank director was child’s play.
She’d found a way to handle the trouble created by Cassion and Irenber’s unexpected appearance at Dayson’s birthday breakfast, yet unease lingered.
‘What am I missing?’
Julia paced her chamber anxiously.
***
In the murky dark of night, I sat at my desk, lost in thought.
“What are you doing, my student?”
Rumdracks entered the study. The reek of alcohol came with him.
“Have you been drinking?”
“Just a little?”
The way he squinted and spoke with flushed cheeks held not the slightest shred of credibility.
“So which young lady tonight?”
“Before I could drink with any young lady, my devoted student called, so I came running.”
These days Rumdracks spent his mornings as the director of the Phoenix Bank and his evenings building his reputation as a Casanova.
“Did you call me here to lecture? Your teacher is far too busy for scolding from his charming pupil.”
The wisest approach to his nonsense about teacher and student was to ignore it entirely.
“Sit down for a moment.”
He dragged over a nearby chair and sat before me. In that instant, I revisited my decision.
Interfering with the future.
Until now, I’d made every effort not to touch futures unrelated to my own.
But through Karman, I’d learned that a passive approach couldn’t yield the results I wanted.
So I’d decided to boldly make use of what I knew.
What I was about to do tonight was the first step.
“Spread a rumor for me.”
“What kind?”
“That a great war is coming to the Sea.”
“Huh? War’s breaking out?”
Rumdracks straightened in his seat, lurching forward until he was nose-to-nose with me.
Ugh, the reek of alcohol. I pinched my nose and tried to back away, but Rumdracks’ eyes lit up and he leaned in further with each step I took.
“War’s really happening?”
Yes, war was coming. But I couldn’t tell him the truth.
If a con artist like Rumdracks took interest, it meant one thing: there was money to be made—guaranteed.
‘Good grief, what terrible people.’
Joining hands with someone who saw nothing in war but profit made me feel like I was becoming equally rotten, and the thought sat uncomfortably with me.
“I wouldn’t know.”
I shrugged. War or no war, I played ignorant.
“Come on, you know something. Just tell me. What’s so great about having a teacher? Trust me, I’m tight-lipped. I’ll keep it to myself.”
Rumdracks rattled off every line that someone genuinely cautious would never dream of saying.
Trust me?
I’m tight-lipped.
I’ll keep it to myself.
Any one of those would be enough to kill credibility. All three together? Might as well hang a sign saying ‘I’m a liar.’
“Don’t bother digging into details. Just spread the word.”
“What’s my cut?”
When it became clear I wasn’t going to divulge anything, Rumdracks extended his palm with clean efficiency. That man knew how to stay on brand.
He really did love money—thoroughly and completely.
I opened the drawer and produced the money purse I’d prepared in advance, setting it into the cradle of his outstretched hand.
“Is this enough?”
“Wow, that’s generous for just loosening my tongue. But are you sure you won’t bankrupt yourself throwing money around like this?”
Rumdracks’ concern was baseless.
By the time this was done, I would have earned far more than I’d ever spent.
I Bought Out the Villains with Money (Serialized)
Author │ Lee In-hye
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd. – Tiramisu
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ Suite 1101, 11F Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1
ⓒ Lee In-hye 2021
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder.
No part of this work may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher and author.
Violations may result in criminal and civil liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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